His father taught singing and his mother was a gifted pianist. He was
admitted to the Paris Conservatory just before his eleventh birthday,
studying with Gounod - the greatest influence on his musical life -
and Halévy. In 1857 he won the Grand Prix de Rome. In Paris,
for a living, he taught piano and did hackwork for publishers. He married
Halévy's daughter in 1869. After the early promise of his Symphony
in C, written before he was seventeen, his other works were patchy and
only moderately received, until with his Jeux d'enfants in 1871 he received
world acclaim. He died of a throat infection.
1854 (16)
La Prétresse, one-act opera
1855 (17)
Symphony in C major (not performed until 1935)
1857 (19)
Le Docteur Miracle, operetta
Clovis et Clothilde, cantata
1859 (21)
Don Procopio, opera
1863 (25)
The Pearl Fishers, opera
1865 (27)
Chasse fantastique, for piano
Ivan the Terrible, opera (withdrawn, thought lost, recovered 1944, produced
1946 in Wurtemburg)
1866 (28)
Trois esquisses musicales, for piano or harmonium
1867 (29)
The Fair Maid of Perth, opera
1868 (30)
Symphony in C major, Roma
Marche funèbre, for orchestra
Variations chromatiques, for piano
Marine, for piano 1
869 (31)
Vasco da Gama, symphonic ode with chorus
1871 (33)
Petite Suite d'Orchestre
Jeux d'enfants, twelve pieces for piano duet (later five were made into
an orchestral suite)
1872 (34)
L'Arlésienne, incidental music
Djamileh, opera
1873 (35)
Patrie, overture
1875 (37)
fp Carmen, opera